Cashen was a longtime sportswriter in his Baltimore hometown and went to law school before joining the Orioles and eventually becoming GM.

The Orioles won two titles while he worked for them, but he made his mark in New York.

Hired in 1980, Cashen transformed a last-place team into an outfit that became the most dominant force in baseball. Cashen made the trades that brought first baseman Keith Hernandez (a Capuchino High-San Bruno grad) and future Hall of Famer Gary Carter to the Mets, and oversaw the draft picks of pitcher Dwight Gooden and outfielder Darryl Strawberry.

-- Bobby Castillo, a former Dodgers and Twins pitcher credited with teaching Fernando Valenzuela the screwball, died in a Los Angeles hospital after a bout with cancer, the Dodgers said. He was 59.

ELSEWHERE

Compton likely in British Open

Erik Compton's runner-up finish in the U.S. Open should be enough to get him into the next major championship.

With only two weeks remaining in British Open qualifying, there will not be enough players to fill the 156-man field at Royal Liverpool. The R&A then turns to an alternate list that is almost certain to accommodate Compton, the two-time heart-transplant recipient who is having his best year.

NFL: The 49ers have signed guard Al Netter to a one-year deal. The team announced the deal less than a month after he was waived.

Basketball: In the San Francisco Bay Area Pro-Am, USF-bound guard Frankie Ferrari scored 24 points to lead South Bay to a 105-101 victory over Bay City at Kezar Pavilion.

Jurisprudence:Oscar Pistorius was not dealing with a mental illness when he killed girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp and was able to understand the wrongfulness of what he had done, according to psychiatric reports submitted Monday at the Olympic athlete's murder trial.

The conclusions by a panel of experts, read aloud by chief prosecutor Gerrie Nel, appeared to remove the possibility that the double-amputee runner could be declared not guilty because of a mental disorder, which would result in him being committed to a mental institution.